U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry recently met for extensive discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Among other things, they discussed how to restart almost certainly futile talks between the Syrian regime and Syrian rebels.

This latest American-Russian engagement must be seen not only in light of the failure of the U.S. “reset” to elicit helpful Russian behavior, but also in light of the failure of U.S. attempts to deal with Syria by working with Russia. American-endorsed, Russian-sponsored “peace plans” and “peace conferences” succeeded only in elevating Putin’s stature and extending Assad a lifeline. They gave the Assad regime time just when time was running out.